History: Eli F Cooley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Matawan (1820-1823)

Eli Field Cooley was the first full time pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Matawan (then Middletown Point) after the church was burned to the ground by the British in 1777.  The small congregation had been served by a series of pulpit supplies for over thirty years. (Source: Presbyterians Pioneer at Matawan, pg 28)

Rev Cooley served as pulpit supply at Middletown Point on 7 Jun 1819 and was paid $3.00. He and the trustees subsequently exchanged three letters in August and September 1819 to negotiate his salary and seal the deal. Subscriptions from the congregation were solicited to fund a full time pastorate. Rev Cooley accepted the call a year later, on 31 Aug 1820. (Source: Presbyterians Pioneer at Matawan, pp 28-29)

The church consisted of only fourteen members when Rev Cooley arrived in 1820. The membership list: William Lawson, James Van Nuye, Lewis Conover, Benijah Harvey, Daniel Van Voorhees, Samuel Donaldson,William Toan, Elizabeth Schenck, Mary Walton, Margaret Donaldson, Catherine Conover, Anna Cotterill, Deborah Little, and Catherine Walton. (Source: Presbyterians Pioneer at Matawan, pg 29)

Once Rev Cooley arrived, church membership nearly tripled in less than a year. A Missionary Society was established in 1821, a formal Sunday School was formed, and a committee was named to discuss construction of a parsonage. The pastor was living in a building on a short street at the rear of the Bedle property at the corner of what is now Route 34 and Main Street. Joseph D Bedle, elected Governor of NJ in 1875, was born in that same house. (Source: Presbyterians Pioneer at Matawan, pp 29- 31)

Unfortunately the subscriptions meant to sustain a full time pastor didn't suffice. There would be no parsonage built. In fact, a pew rental scheme was devised in Apr 1822 to try to fund the Reverend's salary. Rev Cooley terminated his pastoral relationship with Matawan on 23 Apr 1823. The church would be in the hands of pulpit supplies for the next five years. (Source: Presbyterians Pioneer at Matawan, pg 31)

Biographical Notes

Eli Field Cooley was born in Sunderland, Franklin County, Massachusetts on 15 October 1781, son of Rinnah and Lucy Field Cooley. The 1850 census said he was born in Massachusetts,while the 1860 schedule said he was born in Connecticut. The death record would have been provided by his third wife, Amy, who likely didn't know his family lineage, while the 1850 record would have been provided by Eli himself. (Sources: Descendants of Henry Scudder, Ancestry Message Boards, 22 Jun 2002; 1850 Federal Census in New Jersey; 1860 Federal Mortality Schedule in New Jersey)

Rev Cooley received his BA (1806) and MA( 1809) from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). The Presbytery of New Brunswick licensed him as a preacher of the gospel in 1809. (Source: "Eli Field Cooley, DD, Family Correspondence 1820-1857," by Clark Hutchinson, 1982, published in New Jersey Postal History (NJPH), Vol X No 5, Whole Number 50, Nov 1982, pp 55-59, pp 3-7 online.)

Rev Cooley married Hannah Scudder, daughter of Colonel William Scudder, on 15 Oct 1807 by the Rev Samuel Stanhope Smith DD. She died 6 Apr 1817, aged 29, and was buried at Cherry Valley, NY. The ladies of the Presbyterian church there erected a monument saying, "To the memory of one whom it were unpardonable to lay down in silence, and of whom it were difficult to speak with justice; for her true character will look like flattery, and the least abatement of it is an injury to her memory."  (Source: "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books, pp 46-47.)

Rev Cooley and Hannah had children: a daughter, unnamed, lost in infancy; William Scudder Cooley; Sarah Lucinda Cooley; Catharine Cooley; Hannah Maria Cooley, born in Cherry Valley, NY and died 12 Oct 1843 and buried in the Ewing church graveyard;  and Samuel Stanhope Smith Cooley. (Source: "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books, pp 46-47)

He received his first call to ministry in 1810 at Cherry Valley, New York, where he served until 1820. (Source: "Eli Field Cooley, DD, Family Correspondence 1820-1857," by Clark Hutchinson, 1982, published in New Jersey Postal History (NJPH), Vol X No 5, Whole Number 50, Nov 1982, pp 55-59, pp 3-7 online.)

Incident in Cherry Valley - fate of Jane Wells (Library of Congress)

Cherry Valley was the site of a horrific massacre on 11 Nov 1778 during the American Revolution. Thirty non-combatant settlers plus a number of armed defenders were said to have been killed by a force including Loyalists, British troops, and Seneca and Mohawk Indians.

Rev Cooley took over the pulpit at the Cherry Valley Presbyterian Church from a Rev Isaac Lewis, of nearby Cooperstown, who had found the church leaderless in 1804 and began to impose his Congregationalist leanings on the church. Rev Lewis is said to have imagined that he was establishing the church anew, despite the fact that the church had been founded in 1740. Rev Cooley, arriving in 1810, found that the congregation had wandered from the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted by the church in 1768, and instead adopted a statement of faith and covenant of a Congregational nature more to Lewis' liking.

"Mr. COOLEY, better acquainted with the Presbyterian ways, brought this anomaly in the practice of the church to the notice of session, and appended a note to the record, stating that 'the session thinks it not proper to require it of members, inasmuch as the printed confession of the Presbyterian church (i.e. the Westminster) clearly and fully express all articles of faith and practice derived from the Word of God.' (1811.)
Source: The History of Otsego County, New York, 1740-1878, by D Hamilton Hurd; Church Histories - Cherry Valley - Presbyterian Church, available online at USGENWEB)

Eli F Cooley, of Trenton, married Catharine Burrowes Henderson in 1818 and had two children. (Source: Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Early Settlers of New Jersey and Their Descendants, Vol III, by John E Stillwell, MD, p 145, published in New York, no publisher noted.)

Eli F Cooley's second wife was Catharine Henderson, daughter of Thomas and Rachel (Burrows) Henderson. (Source: Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications (1889-1970), Ancestry.com. The applicant was James Courtenay Hening, grandson of Eli and Catharine and son of their daughter Rachel. James was born in Steubenville, Ohio.)

Eli and Catharine had children: Rachel Henderson Cooley; and Mary Green Cooley. (Source: "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books, pp 46-47)

He resigned his position at Cherry Valley in 1820, in part due to his wife's ill health, and he accepted a call at Middletown Point (now First Presbyterian Church in Matawan), where he served until 1823. (Source: "Eli Field Cooley, DD, Family Correspondence 1820-1857," by Clark Hutchinson, 1982, published in New Jersey Postal History (NJPH), Vol X No 5, Whole Number 50, Nov 1982, pp 55-59, pp 3-7 online.)

Rev Cooley's decision to locate in Middletown Point at a time of his wife's ill health is very likely connected to his wife's parents being residents of the Matawan area. Catharine's mother, Rachel (Burrowes) Henderson, born Sep 1751, was the daughter of Major John Burrowes (1718 - Sep 1785) and his wife, the widow Hope (Taylor) Watson. Rachel's father, who died in 1785, had been a prominent figure in town, having survived the burning of his mill by the British and their invasion of his homestead (known now as Burrowes Mansion, on Main Street in Matawan) during the American Revolution. John and Hope were buried next to each other at the old Mount Pleasant Presbyterian graveyard on Route 516 near Route 79. (Source: Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Early Settlers of New Jersey and Their Descendants, Vol III, by John E Stillwell, MD, pp 140-41, 145, published in New York, no publisher noted.)

{See the top of page for my notes on his 1820 - 1823 ministry at Middletown Point, NJ.}

Ewing Presbyterian Church

Rev Cooley accepted a call at Trenton First (Ewing Presbyterian Church) in 1823. He became a trustee at Princeton and earned his Doctor of Divinity from Rutgers University in 1856. He retired in 1857 and died in 1860. (Source: "Eli Field Cooley, DD, Family Correspondence 1820-1857," by Clark Hutchinson, 1982, published in New Jersey Postal History (NJPH), Vol X No 5, Whole Number 50, Nov 1982, pp 55-59, pp 3-7 online.)

Eli F Cooley was head of household in the 1830 Federal Census in Trenton, Hunterdon County, NJ.

"At the reopening of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton - now the Presbyterian Church of Ewing - the Rev Dr Eli F Cooley preached a sermon, Sabbath morning, December 1st 1839, on the text "Your Fathers: where are they? and the Prophets: Do they live forever?" (Zechariah 1:5). In the preparation of this discourse, he gathered a large amount of genealogical information concerning the families of his congregation. This led him to engage in further research into the history of that section of the county and of families under his pastoral care. In 1842 he wrote for the 'State Gazette', at Trenton, a series of papers relative to the first settlement of Hopewell, and in 1844, Barber and Howe's 'Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey' was published, with much of the article on Mercer county known to have been prepared by Dr Cooley. His information, he said, was collected from the examination of deeds and wills, from surveys and family Bibles, and from daily conversation with aged persons of his acquaintance. During the latter part of his life, it was his intention to publish the result of his labors, but this pleasure was denied him. Prof. William S Cooley, of Philadelphia, a gentleman eminently fitted to continue the researches made by his father. For many years, he devoted much time to verifying and amplifying these family records.  .  . He, too, in the last years of his life, had begun to copy, for publication, the result of his own and his father's researches. He died Februaary 7th, 1882, and the manuscript notes of both grandfather and uncle came into possession of Miss Hannah L Cooley, of Ewing, Mercer county, NJ. Many efforts have since been made by persons interested in these records to have them printed, and at their urgent solicitation, Miss Cooley has prepared them for the press. . . ."  (Source: Preface to "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books.)

Eli F Cooley was head of household in the 1840 Federal Census in Ewing, Mercer County.

The 1850 Federal Census for New Jersey showed Eli F Cooley, 68 years old, born in Massachusetts, as head of household in Ewing Township, Mercer County. He was listed as an OSP Clergyman. He had $11,000 in property. His wife was Catherine V Cooley, age 67, born in New Jersey. Also in the household was John Stein, age 20, born in Ireland, who was listed as a farm hand.

Eli Cooley's second wife, Catharine, died in 1854 and was buried in Springfield, Illinois. (Source: "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books, pp 46-47)

Eli Cooley married a third time, to Amy Reading, daughter of Pierson Reading.  (Source: "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books, pp 47, 200)

There was an Eli F Cooley who was a manager in the NJ State Government in Mercer County, NJ in 1859. (Source: The 1859 Business Directory for Essex, Union and Hudson Counties, New Jersey, by Ann Borden, published in 1859 in Toms River, NJ, republished in 2001 by the Generations Network, Provo, UT, indexed but full text unavailable online at Ancestry.com. This record seems dubious.)

Rev Eli F Cooley, born in Connecticut; died in Apr 1860 at age 79 of paralysis (sic paryslysis) in Ewing Township, NJ. Occupation: OSP (Old School Presbyterian) Clergyman. He was married. (Source: 1860 Federal Mortality Schedule for Hamilton, Mercer County, NJ)

In 1883, Hannah Louisa Cooley published the genealogical research of her late grandfather and late uncle, Eli Field Cooley (1781-1860) and William Scudder Cooley, respectively "Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ" (Source: Preface to "Genealogy of the Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing, Old Hunterdon County, NJ.," by Eli Field Cooley and his son William Scudder Cooley, and published by Eli's granddaughter and William's niece, Hannah L Cooley, available online at Google Books)